I have been to.... Japan

 We've recently returned from a 3 week trip to Japan, which I have to say was absolutely amazing. We arrived in mid March, and travelled to the very tip of Honshu and (briefly) to Kyushu, although most of the places we visited were in the centre of the country. Everything from blizzards, through howling gales, rain and blazing sunshine.

Anyway, as ever I'll put up a few pictures of historical/military interest. First up though, a few touristy pictures.

Tokyo Tower. Mt Fuji dimly visible in the distance in the morning sun (this was actually the view from our hotel in Tokyo, Park Hotel in Shiodome, highly recommended).

The frozen north! This is near Akita iirc.

Cherry blossoms in the centre/South and the traditional picnics underneath them.

Mt Fuji looking pretty good across the bay.

OK, enough of that, lets have some Samurai stuff.

We visited a few Samurai houses, this was the largest, but they all had a similar layout essentially being a walled building complex. This one was big enough to host a number of farm buildings and various crops and animal enclosures.

Inside was much as you'd expect  - lots of wood and paper sliding doors etc and tatami mats on the floor.

This was a much smaller house, albeit still with a decent walled garden. This one featured its own moat!

Nice set of armour.

And a couple of Katana blades. They looked absolutely razor sharp.

One of the internal gardens. I gather there are six desirable characteristics of Japanese gardens which include water, plants, a vista and some other things I can't recall.

Tokugawa Armour (reproduction!). This was at the Tokagawa Shrine and tomb beneath Mount Fuji. 

This fine chap is outside the Imperial Palace and was one of the 13th Century Emperors most loyal retainers. Now he is on permanent guard outside the remains of Edo Castle. 

Speaking of castles, we also visited several of these, although they were all built towards the end of the Sengoku period and saw very little (or no) actual use in warfare. They all had a similar construction, but some were (much) bigger than others.

This is the main keep of Matsue Castle, one of only 12 surviving original castles, the rest having been destroyed accidentally or deliberately, although many have been rebuilt in modern times. Unlike Medieval European castles, they aren't designed to be permanently occupied.

The interior construction is very similar to an eighteenth century Man of War! The whole wooden structure rests on a massive stone base.

Outside the main keep is a system of moats, walls and smaller towers. This is a watchtower at Kanazawa Castle, the construction is similar to the main keep but much smaller.

And there are usually secondary moats inside the defensive works too.

This bridge leads to the island with the main keep on it. You can also see how sturdy the walls are, and how imposing the moats are.

The final castle we visited was Edo Castle in Tokyo, now the Imperial Palace. Compared to the others, it is absolutely vast. This is one of the huge secondary moats and a watch tower.

One of the inner fortifications. The amount of stonework in general was very impressive.

And this is the remaining base of the keep at Edo which was four times the size of any others we saw.

Along with castles there were various nautical encounters.

A Coastguard ship, we saw quite a few of these in various sizes but no proper Japanese Navy ships.

I rather liked this tugboat with its dayglo mast. This was in Aomori at the very tip of Honshu. The snow covered mountains of Hokkaido were just visible on the horizon.

Also in Aomori was this excellent museum ship covering the old rail ferries which ran from Aomori to Hokkaido. The rails are mounted on a sort of retractable crane thing so they move up and down with the tide. 

Now there is an undersea tunnel(!) going to Hokkaido, one of the longest in the world, which has reduced the demand for ferry services.

The preserved ferry from the side. Aomori was attacked in August 1945 by B29s and all six of the original wartime ferries were sunk or damaged by US carrier planes in various attacks.

Another Coastguard ship moored near the ferry.

Even more coastguard ships. These were on the Sea of Japan, I can't recall exactly where.

Shipping on the the strait between Honshu and Kyushu. It was incredibly busy, as the strait links the Pacific with the Sea of Japan and all those busy factories on Korea and China. At the narrowest section (just visible) there is a road bridge and tunnel. 

There was at least one traditional Japanese ship doing pleasure cruises.

This tug boat, named "Yamato" apparently has ideas above its station! I later discovered that Yamato is actually quite a common name for things in Japan.

It wouldn't be a trip to Japan without a trip to Hiroshima.

The famous nuclear dome building. Ground zero was 150m east of here, so I'm astonished it is still standing.

The cenotaph, memorial park and eternal flame were all very well done.

We did visit the museum, but it was very busy. The 'human shadow' steps have bene moved inside here now. I didn't take any photos inside apart form this one as it seemed rather distasteful. 

Under this dome are the ashes of 70,000 people, which is rather sobering.

This shrine is to the memorialise the school students who were in the city at the time.

Three of the original tramcars survived the atomic attack and are still running. We were fortunate enough to see one. The rest of the trams are much more modern.

That was a great trip, very enjoyable, with everything from BladeRunner to Japanese social realist cinema and taking in a big dollop of Shogun and The Last Samurai on the way. Great stuff and highly recommended for a visit. Even if you don't speak Japanese, Google Translate is very helpful!